Electromechanical aircraft braking system architectures are known, in particular from documents FR 2 964 625 and FR 2 952 009, that include a certain number of actuator controllers (also known as electromechanical actuator controllers or EMACs) and braking computers (or brake system controllers (BSCs), or electronic braking control units (EBCUs), and in which the electromechanical actuators of the brake of each wheel fitted with a brake (i.e. each “braked” wheel) are grouped together in two complementary groups such that a first group of actuators is controlled by a first controller that controls those actuators only, and a second group of actuators is controlled by a second controller that controls those actuators only.
The actuators of each brake are dimensioned so that in the event of one controller failing, the actuators of the same brake that are controlled by the other controller are capable of compensating for the failure, at least in part, so as to enable the aircraft to be braked safely.
In such architectures, each controller is electrically connected to at least one braking computer, possibly via a remote data concentrator (RDC), as described in document FR 2 964 625. An anti-skid protection function (also known as an “anti-lock” protection function) serves to relax the braking force in the event of a braked wheel skidding, and this function is performed in the braking computers. For this purpose, each braked wheel has a sensor for sensing the rotary speed of the wheel, which sensor is connected either to a single braking computer, or else to a single data concentrator that transmits the speed of rotation to one or more braking computers.
Such architectures present two main drawbacks.
Firstly, it is found that a failure of the braking computer or of the data concentrator to which the speed sensor of a wheel is connected leads to a total loss of the anti-skid protection function for said wheel.
In addition, in an architecture where both controllers associated with a braked wheel are connected to a single braking computer, a failure of the braking computer leads to a total loss of braking on that wheel. In order to guarantee satisfactory braking reliability, it is therefore necessary to use at least two braking computers, each of which is connected to all of the controllers, possibly via data concentrators as described in document FR 2 964 625, in which two braking computers are connected via two data concentrators to eight controllers that control sixteen actuators distributed over four wheels. Naturally, that solution is expensive and not very advantageous in terms of weight, given the numerous pieces of equipment and the associated cabling.